CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Haydon Bridge it runs 116 km to Haydon Bridge; allow about 1 h 35 of riding. The stops in between: Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac, Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc, Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 6 and The vallum between Oatens Bank.
A couple of kilometres west of Chollerford, the Military Road climbs onto open moorland, and at a place called Limestone Corner, the most northerly point of Hadrian's Wall, the Romans gave up. Their ditch in front of the Wall was supposed to be cut through solid rock here, and you can still see where they started: huge blocks of whinstone split by wedges and left lying in the ditch, with holes for the levers still visible, as if the workers had just walked away for lunch. Brown Moor, close by, is the site of one of several Roman temporary camps in this stretch, where soldiers camped while building the Wall or moving through the frontier zone, their outlines barely visible in the rough grass.
Read the complete Brown Moor Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Brown Moor Roman temporary camp is where the day begins. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac.
Just north of Hexham, the A road climbs out of the Tyne valley and meets the Roman frontier on a high, windy shoulder of Northumberland. Here, near Acomb, Wall and the crossing of the North Tyne at Chollerford, the line of Hadrian's Wall and its vallum runs across open farmland, sometimes visible as a low bank, sometimes followed by the road itself. Like every stretch of the frontier, it belongs to the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire, and this middle section is where the wall starts to feel serious, heading west into the wild central crags.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac comes up about 15 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc.
Most people meet Hadrian's Wall in the wild middle section around Housesteads, where it rides the crags of the Whin Sill. Out here at the eastern end, a few miles from Newcastle, it is a quieter, more domestic affair, and that is part of its charm. Heddon on the Wall, four kilometres away, keeps one of the longest surviving stretches of the wall's full broad foundation on this side of the country, a solid run of masonry beside the road, and the ground around it preserves the vallum, the great flat-bottomed ditch with banks on either side that the Romans dug just south of the wall to mark the military zone. Begun under the emperor Hadrian in AD 122, the whole frontier ran from the Tyne to the Solway, and it is part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 27 km into the recorded legs you reach Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc. Next is Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 6.
Wall mile 6 is not a place name but a measurement, since the Romans divided Hadrian's Wall into numbered miles counting from the east, and the sixth mile falls at Benwell, now a western suburb of Newcastle. Here, between terraces of Victorian houses, the remains of the Roman fort of Condercum once looked out over the Tyne valley, and you can still see a stretch of the Wall's foundation, the base of a turret and the remains of a small temple dedicated to a local god, Antenociticus, one of the few such temples to survive along the frontier. The fort stood on a ridge above the river, a good place to watch for trouble and a good place to be seen.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 6 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 6, about halfway. Next is The vallum between Oatens Bank.
Look south of the road near Oatens Bank, just west of Heddon on the Wall, and you will see it: a broad, flat-bottomed ditch running across the fields, with a low mound on either side. That is the vallum, and it is one of the strangest and most debated elements of Hadrian's Wall. It runs parallel to the wall, a short distance to the south, along most of its length, and it seems to have marked the rear edge of the military zone, controlling access from the south rather than defending against attack from the north. Crossings were limited to causeways opposite the forts, which suggests a kind of customs line.
Read the complete The vallum between Oatens Bank write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The vallum between Oatens Bank sits at 70 km, about halfway. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 6.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 6 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 6 comes up about 76 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 89 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc. Next is back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac, late in the day. Next is Brown Moor Roman temporary camp.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Brown Moor Roman temporary camp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 116 km.
Brown Moor Roman temporary camp → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac → Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc is 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc → Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 6 is 13 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 6 → The vallum between Oatens Bank is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
The vallum between Oatens Bank → back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 6 is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall in wall mile 6 → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc is 13 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the Marc → back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac is 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hadrian's Wall and vallum between the trac → Brown Moor Roman temporary camp is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.